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Welcome to Friday Fictioneers! We are a community of writers from around the world who post 100-word stories between Wednesday and Friday each week. The stories are all based on a photo prompt provided on Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ blog. Please visit Rochelle’s blog for more information…and join us if you wish!

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The NaPoWriMo challenge for April 26th is to write a curtal sonnet, a form invented by Gerald Manley Hopkins, an English poet and Jesuit priest. This is shorter than a regular sonnet, having only six lines in the first stanza, four in the second, plus a “half-line” at the end. Meter and rhyme, if any, are left to the poet to decide.

Today’s NaPoWriMo challenge is to compose a poem inspired by the name of a sea shell. Yes, there is a sea shell called “sparse dove,” and that made me think of the sparse population of mourning doves during our frigid winter. In the fall, mourning doves begin to migrate: first the young birds born that spring/summer, then the adult females, then the males. However, some males choose to stay behind to protect their territory in order to re-establish nests the following spring in the same area. I admire their bravery; they stay in the colder climate despite the shrinking food sources and the possibility of frostbitten toes. This is because the female chose the nesting spot during courtship. Mourning doves are monogamous, so the brave male, like any good husband, will try to give her what she wants!

I’m also fond of the male mourning dove’s attitude toward equal parenting. He forages for nest-building supplies and brings them to the female, once she has chosen the spot. She then weaves the twigs into a loose circle around herself. The partnership is not consummated until the nest is built. The parents share brooding responsibilities equally, and once the newborns arrive, both mother and father produce crop milk and share feeding responsibilities.

Finally, there is no more endearing trait of the male mourning dove than his call, a yearning, melancholy cooing sound that is the reason for the species’ name. I love a man who sings to me. I really do.

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Today’s NaPoWriMo challenge is to write a poem that provides a detailed description of something using at least three of the five senses. It’s recommended that we describe something we encountered or experienced today.

Morning Song

by Jan Brown

morning feels like the aftermath of an assault
surely someone had attacked her knees and hips
while she fitfully slept
perhaps an angry debt collector
a sour-faced enforcer or
a fundraiser for the arthritis foundation
wielding a baseball bat

the acrid odor of stale sweat
another reminder of the night’s
pain and thrashing
gives way to the sweetness
of lavender body wash
doesn’t smell at all like lavender
still it’s delicate and flowery
giving purpose to the wisps of steam
that reorganize the kinks in her tendons

taste buds waken against their will
to the dry minty medication
that melts in her mouth
as advertised
a dozen more pills
to wash down with breakfast
she gives thanks to whichever greek god
created fat-free yogurt
and all the tiny morsels of mango
that lurk at the bottom of the plastic cup

she greets the world outside her window
seasonal colors waiting to be seen
but doesn’t come alive
until she hears the morning’s song
a harmonious cacophony of birds
going about the business of a warm spring day
the rhythm of lawn mowers and leaf blowers
the whistle of the train
the soulful latin jazz refrain
morning’s almost gone
but her song remains

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The National Poetry Writing Month challenge today is to write a “replacement” poem. A replacement poem has elements of a “found poem,” but uses more of the poet’s own words.

We were asked to select a noun representing a tangible item (in my case, I chose “ecosystem”). Then, using found text, replace that word with one representing an intangible quality. I used the Wikipedia entry for “ecosystem,” selected five specific sentences, and replaced “ecosystem” with “happiness.” Then I built the poem around those five statements (five stanzas). I included a few other found phrases from the Wikipedia article as appropriate. I hope you find it meaningful.

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This is in response to the February 19thNaHaiWriMo theme of the day: “baby.” It prompted me to think back to a horrible winter 32 years ago, when it was 25 degrees below zero (Farenheit) with strong gusts of wind at my mother’s graveside.

But the most wonderful nephew in the world kept us busy later at home. I remember the smell of the soy formula that he burped down the back of my burgundy tunic. I remember how he cried constantly, unless I walked him around the house, holding him up high. I remember his sweet smile when I did.